Investigation of the Cold War’s cultural dimensions has surged over the last fifteen years, as have transnational literary studies and socially oriented textual studies. These areas converge in At Penpoint, an ambitious and welcome contribution to literary scholarship. Monica Popescu, a leader in Cold War cultural studies, has authored South African Literature beyond the Cold War (2010) and coedited three important essay collections that examine the Cold War’s impact on the global South, the Black diaspora, and Africa, respectively. Popescu is also series coeditor of Routledge Studies in Cultures of the Global Cold War.
Unlike recent studies that focus on one of the two superpowers or blocs, this book aims to address the combined impact of both blocs in their African efforts to expand what Popescu terms their “spheres of influence” (12). Turning a lens on the phenomenon of the Cold War itself, Popescu believes, is a historical and...
